investigation. No spirit of private vengeance should be
tolerated.[347]

After the skirmish at Locust Grove, Colonel Weer deemed that the
appropriate moment had come for approaching John Ross with suggestions
that the Cherokee Nation abandon its Confederate ally and return to
its allegiance to the United States government. From

[Footnote 345: (cont.) that is to be found in his letter of July
twelfth, in which he gave his opinion of the negroes, whom he found
very insolent. He proposed that the Cherokee Nation should abolish
slavery by vote.]

[Footnote 346: J.A. Phillips to Ross, June 26, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 450.]

[Footnote 347: Phillips to Judson, June 28, 1862, Ibid., 456.
Orders, almost identically the same, were issued to Salomon. See
Phillips to Salomon, June 27, 1862, Ibid., 452.]

his camp on Wolf Creek, therefore, he addressed a conciliatory
communication[348] to the Cherokee chief, begging the favor of an
interview and offering to make full reparation for any outrages or
reprisals that his men, in defiance of express orders to the contrary,
might have made upon the Cherokee people through whose country they
had passed.[349] Weer had known for several days, indeed, ever since
he first crossed the line, that the natives were thoroughly alarmed at
the coming of the Indian Expedition. They feared reprisals and Indian
revenge and, whenever possible, had fled out of reach of danger, many
of them across the Arkansas River, taking with them what of their
property they could.[350] Weer had done his best to restrain his
troops, especially the Indian, and had been very firm in insisting
that no "outrages perpetrated after Indian fashion" should occur.[351]

Weer's message to Ross was sent, under a flag of truce, by Doctor
Gillpatrick, a surgeon in the Indian Expedition, who had previously
served under Lane.[352] Ross's reply,[353] although prompt, was
scarcely satisfactory from Weer's standpoint. He refused pointblank
the request for an interview and reminded Weer that the Cherokee
Nation, "under the sanction and authority of the whole Cherokee
people," had made a formal alliance with the Confederate government
and

[Footnote 348: Weer to Ross, July 7, 1862, _Official Records_,
vol. xiii, 464.]

[Footnote 349: That there had been outrages and reprisals, Carruth and
Martin admitted but they claimed that they had been committed by white
men and wrongfully charged against Indians [Commissio